"The truthful lip shall be established forever, But a lying tongue is but for a moment." Proverbs 12:19

I was raised on maxims. My mother and grandmother quoted them constantly. When I was a kid at Kresge's just itching to spend my entire allowance on Jolly Ranchers or some plastic-y thing or other they knew would be broken in no time, they'd bring Ben Franklin, tiny glasses low on his nose, into the aisle to remind me that, "A penny saved is a penny earned." Ben was always so annoying, mainly because he was right.

When I'd attempt to squirm out of telling the whole truth because sometimes the whole truth could make you look pretty bad, they'd trot out Sir Walter Scott's "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." As a child, I had that line used as a weapon of correction against me so many times that it's amazing I still like poetry. But again, Sir Walter was only annoying to me then because he was right. Now I'm thankful for the truth of those words, and doubly thankful that I learned them when I was young.

Sometimes, when I go for walks in our overgrown, unmanaged woods, I try to follow the deer paths that wind through the trees down to the creek. I've noticed that it's easy to tell when you've missed the mark and stepped off their path because you find yourself walking through sticky, clingy spider webs that have to be quickly swiped from your face and hair. I don't know whether the deer have already broken through all the webs on their path, or whether the spiders know not to hang webs where they're most likely to be broken, but I do know that it's unpleasant to walk into a web and get that creepy, crawly "where is the spider?" feeling. And webs, since they don't spin themselves, are usually inhabited by lurking things.  I don't like lurking things.

Not to put spiders down, but lies are lurking things. Shady business practices are lurking things. Secret relationships are lurking things. Acting like Super Christian when we're at church, or around Christian friends, then being someone else entirely when we're around a different crowd is a lurking thing. Anytime we're trying to deceive someone, whether in ways large or small, we're off the path and tangled in a web. How can we stay out of webs and on the path?

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119: 105

Maxims, many of which are based on Scripture, are good, but Scripture is better. Reading God's Word lights the lamp that lights our path.

"I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness." John 12:46

Reading God's Word shines the light of Jesus into the darkness that surrounds us. How often should we read it? Every day we want to avoid the sticky webs the Evil One has spun, hoping we'll blunder off the path.

Open the Word today and read it. Light your lamp. Stay on the path.

Daye Phillippo

October 2008